Catch Up! - Kansas City

Hello to you dedicated reads of the Beth and Brian blog, who, if you are reading this, are still checking our blog, hoping and praying that we have updated it. Well, today is your lucky day! A bona fide brand new post that has nothing to do with a slap-yo-mama good burger!

It has been quite an eventful month so we will start back in good old Kansas City, Missouri...
circa June 17, 2008...

The first thing you should know about the Starlight Theatre in Kansas City is that it is an outdoor ampitheatre. Yes, that's right, OUTDOORS! It seats 8,000 people and is like being at summer camp. Since the theatre is outdoors we only did 6 evening shows, and they didn't begin until 8:30pm, and even then it was light out for the first 45 minutes of the show.

Here are some photos to give you an idea...

Our Stage Door!

The views from Brian's booth...

The Starlight Theatre is in the middle of Swope Park and only has 1 road that leads to and from the theatre. I'm sure you can imagine the kind of traffic that builds up at the end of a performance! Therefore, instead of sitting in traffic, everyone in the travelling and local company has a tailgate party every night after the show. (The fact that no one comes to our show and therefore there was no traffic did not deter us from partying!) Needless to say, Drowsy Chaperone took these parties to a new level of ridiculousness.

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Tuesday, June 17 - OPENING NIGHT: The party was held by the theatre and it was a lovely opening night party. There was food and drinks and everyone enjoyed themselves.

Also, during the day on Tuesday, Denny & I went to Home Depot and purchased a grill. That's right - a full blown grill. We take our parties seriously.

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Wednesday, June 18

Hosted By: Company Management & Stage Management

Theme: MONKEY LUAU

The company and stage management teams hosted the first party and decided on a Monkey Luau theme. We went all out, complete with hawaiian music, leighs, blow up monkeys, monkey hats, hawaiian shirts and, the topper of it all - ORANGE DRINK COOZIES that said "The Drowsy Chaperone: Luau June 2008". We served shrimp and pineapple skewers, mango salsa, Corona and sodas. Oh - and we had HULA hoops too!

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Thursday, June 19
Hosted By: The Crew
Theme: FIESTA!!

Thursday night it was our crew's turn to host the party. They decided to do a Mexican Fiesta. They made fajitas and guacamole, had 3 pinatas, bought fake mustaches for everyone to wear and had poppers on the table. Everytime someone set one off everyone would shout "AY YI YI YI YI!!!! ARRIBA!" and other stereotypical mexican things. They even had the "Our Lady of Guadalupe" candles from the dollar store. Also, we did the limbo and the Macarena.

Kevin trying to break the chili pepper pinata.

Brian with his mini-maracas.

Bob limbo-ing in his giant Texas hat.

In case you can't read the sticker on his shirt, it says "Border Patrol".

Gene, the head of our wardrobe department, took the monkey pinata and dressed it up to look like one of the monkeys in the show - cymbals and all!

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Friday, June 20

Hosted By: The Local Crew

Theme: BBQ

Friday night the local crew hosted a BBQ. But I forgot to take pictures. I think they were a little overwhelmed by our insanity.

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Saturday, June 21

Hosted By: Georgia Engel

Theme: Americana

Saturday, Georgia volunteered to host the last of the tailgate parties. The theme she decided on was "Americana". We had hamburgers and grilled chicken, chips, pickles, rootbeer floats and a pie eating contest.

Chuck Rea: Pie Eating Champion

Oh yea - we roasted marhsmallows for s'mores too!

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On Sunday, we packed it up and headed off to Salt Lake City. All in all - one of the best weeks I've had on tour yet!

Now you may be asking yourself, what has happened to this grill that was used for all of these festivities? Well, the grill had a road box built for it and it travels on our truck with us. So we can cookout wherever we are!